The staging system used for neurotrophic keratopathy, or NK, is the Mackie classification from 1995 with recent modifications by Dua, which clusters a number of distinct and sometimes nonsequential phases of NK into three broad categories.
This system reflects a time in which the knowledge of NK as well as its management was still limited.
Nowadays, the therapeutic landscape for NK has expanded, and we can aim at diagnosing and treating the disease earlier, preventing it from progressing to the later stages and potentially saving vision. Therefore, we needed an updated staging system that